Man can only become what he is able to consciously imagine, or to 'image forth'.
— Dane Rudhyar, born on this date in 1895
Monday, March 23, 2020
Something to think on …
Sunday, March 22, 2020
Can’t we get along?
… What is the “Goal” of COVID-19? Evolutionary Medicine and Pandemics. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Hmm …
… The luxury of apocalypticism - spiked.
From AIDS to climate change, from swine flu to Covid-19, it has been one apocalyptic scenario after another. The irony is that the elites who readily envisage catastrophe think they are showing how seriously they take genuine social and medical challenges, such as Covid-19. In truth, they demonstrate the opposite. They confirm that they have absolved themselves of the reason and focus required for confronting threats to our society. It isn’t their apocalypticism that captures the human urge to solve genuine problems – it is our anti-apocalypticism, our calmness, our insistence that resources and attention be devoted to genuine challenges without disrupting people’s lives or the economic health of our societies.What I don't understand is why they don't see this as Almghty Evolution acting to bring about what they so often seem to want — the end of humanity.
Fabulous figures …
… and great Americans: In spring, Duluth is bald eagle capital of the world | Duluth News Tribune. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
People of faith then …
… Quarantines have a long history in Italy, as Mark Twain found out.
Well, here in Philly, the newly installed archbishop has suspended the celebration of Mass. God forbid we get contaminated by a consecrated host. What a heroic affirmation of faith. I wonder if he'll close shop again during the next flu season.
Something to think on …
Man is made by his belief. As he believes, so he is.
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who died on this date in 1832
Saturday, March 21, 2020
So good to know …
… 48% of Voters Believe Media Overhyped Coronavirus | Newsmax.com.
Nice that nearly half of us still have common sense. Nice also that a good many people are starting to see through these fifth-rate gas bags calling themselves journalists.
Nice that nearly half of us still have common sense. Nice also that a good many people are starting to see through these fifth-rate gas bags calling themselves journalists.
A message via Wuhan …
… Malcolm Guite: Poet’s Corner. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
My correspondent, a Christian teaching in the International School in Wuhan, had suddenly found herself, willy-nilly, walled in, and, even within the city walls, further enclosed in her own room, looking out through a window, receiving food through a hatch. What could she do but read and pray?
Something to think on …
God is an unutterable sigh, planted in the depths of the soul.
— Jean Paul, born on this date in 1763
Friday, March 20, 2020
Begging to differ …
… Rethinking the Coronavirus Shutdown - WSJ.
See also: Questioning the Shutdown | R. R. Reno. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
If GDP seems abstract, consider the human cost. Think about the entrepreneur who has invested his life in his Memphis ribs joint only to see his customers vanish in a week. Or the retail chain of 30 stores that employs hundreds but sees no sales and must shut its doors.
Or the recent graduate with $20,000 in student-loan debt—taken on with the encouragement of politicians—who finds herself laid off from her first job. Perhaps she can return home and live with her parents, but what if they’re laid off too? How do you measure the human cost of these crushed dreams, lives upended, or mental-health damage that result from the orders of federal and state governments?r
See also: Questioning the Shutdown | R. R. Reno. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Earlier generations understood that institutions anchor our lives. That’s why German children went to school throughout World War II, even when their cities were being reduced to rubble. That’s why Boy Scouts conducted activities during the Spanish flu pandemic and churches were open. We’ve lost this wisdom. In this time of crisis, when our need for these anchors is all the greater, our leaders have deliberately atomized millions of people.
Sage observation …
“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”
— H. L. Mencken
Experts …
… Beyond Eastrod : This plague is caused by a conjunction of the planets.
Of course, as Aquinas noted, “Locus ab auctoritate est infirmissimus“ — the argument from authority is the weakest.
Of course, as Aquinas noted, “Locus ab auctoritate est infirmissimus“ — the argument from authority is the weakest.
Worth considering …
… In the coronavirus pandemic, we're making decisions without reliable data.
Projecting the Diamond Princess mortality rate onto the age structure of the U.S. population, the death rate among people infected with Covid-19 would be 0.125%. But since this estimate is based on extremely thin data — there were just seven deaths among the 700 infected passengers and crew — the real death rate could stretch from five times lower (0.025%) to five times higher (0.625%). It is also possible that some of the passengers who were infected might die later, and that tourists may have different frequencies of chronic diseases — a risk factor for worse outcomes with SARS-CoV-2 infection — than the general population. Adding these extra sources of uncertainty, reasonable estimates for the case fatality ratio in the general U.S. population vary from 0.05% to 1%.
Something to think on …
The strongest man in the world is he who stands most alone.
— Henrik Ibsen, born on this date in 1821
Thursday, March 19, 2020
Just so you know …
… God To Ignore Quarantine And Continue Being Everywhere | The Babylon Bee. (Hat tip, Felix Giordano.)
Blogging note …
I have been very much taken up with caregiving today. Blogging has had to take a back seat.
The poet as critic …
… T. S. Eliot’s animus by Adam Kirsch | The New Criterion. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The poet-critic has been an institution in English literature because usually only an artist has the stubborn animus, the conviction that art should be one way rather than another, that makes for interesting criticism. To write something new is to imply that the writing which already exists is insufficient. Of course, this can never be demonstrably true: there is always already more than enough literature to occupy any reader for a lifetime. Only an artist’s egotism, his certainty that he has something new to offer that the world should not be without, gives him the fruitfully skewed perspective on literature required to see it as deficient. Harold Bloom’s theory of “the anxiety of influence” gave formal statement to this agonistic element in all artistic ambition. “To imagine is to misinterpret,” Bloom writes, which means, among other things, to misinterpret all existing poetry to its own detriment in order to make room for something new
Anniversary …
… Beyond Eastrod : Philip Roth’s 100-year moratorium on literature talk.
What’s the difference between writing about it and talking about it? Writing about what people seems a logical enough progression to me. But I don’t think Roth was ever long on logic.
Hmm …
… Merkel calls coronavirus 'biggest challenge since WWII'.
Well, we all know how Germany met that challenge.
The importance of what we don't know …
… In the coronavirus pandemic, we're making decisions without reliable data. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Remember those known unknowns and unknown unknowns of some years back? I don't think many people study epistemology these days.
Projecting the Diamond Princess mortality rate onto the age structure of the U.S. population, the death rate among people infected with Covid-19 would be 0.125%. But since this estimate is based on extremely thin data — there were just seven deaths among the 700 infected passengers and crew — the real death rate could stretch from five times lower (0.025%) to five times higher (0.625%). It is also possible that some of the passengers who were infected might die later, and that tourists may have different frequencies of chronic diseases — a risk factor for worse outcomes with SARS-CoV-2 infection — than the general population. Adding these extra sources of uncertainty, reasonable estimates for the case fatality ratio in the general U.S. population vary from 0.05% to 1%.
Remember those known unknowns and unknown unknowns of some years back? I don't think many people study epistemology these days.
Something to think on …
One cannot look at the sea without wishing for the wings of a swallow.
— Richard Francis Burton, born on this date in 1821
Wednesday, March 18, 2020
This has gone too far …
… Deerfield Testicle Festival on hold - News - The Daily Telegram - Adrian, MI - Adrian, MI.
When people can’t sit around and eat some nuts, something is wrong.
Amen, brother …
… Keep the Churches Open! | R. R. Reno | First Things. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
… I am demoralized by the Catholic Church’s response to what Ephraim Radner calls “the Time of the Virus.” Those of us who live in densely populated areas are aware of the intense anxiety and fear that has become pervasive. The massive shutdown of just about everything reflects the spirit of our age, which regards the prospect of death as the supreme evil to be avoided at all costs. St. Paul observed that Christ came to free us from our bondage to sin and death. This does not mean we will not sin or die. It means that we need not live in fear.
In case you wondered …
… Top 10 books about boarding school | Books | The Guardian. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I didn't attend boarding school, and I have read only one of these — Decline and Fall — and for some reason never thought of that as being primarily about boarding school. I just thought it was very funny. So, when Brideshead Revisited was on the list of novels I was supposed to read over the summer for a course that fall in the modern novel, that was the first one I chose to read, since I figured it would be funny as hell. I still remember pausing after reading for maybe 45 minutes or so and saying out loud to myself, "This is the saddest book I have ever read." It also turned out to be one of the greatest.
Well, Facebook …
… Facebook Censorship: “Violating Community Standards” – Reluctant Habits.
FYI: Facebook blames bug for coronavirus spam issue. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
But in all seriousness, this draconian assault on basic information sharing is a calumny against free expression and the abundant need to be honest about the place we’re now heading in. If Zuckerberg has decided to withhold information — especially information that was put together by bona-fide journalists who perform their work with objective standards — then this is, in fact, disastrous to discourse and catastrophic to understanding how the terrible flu is spreading. At the present time, it is essential for us to have the floodgates open. And since 2.5 billion people are now on Facebook trying to make sense of a terrible pandemic, then it seems condign to let them vent in any way they need to.
FYI: Facebook blames bug for coronavirus spam issue. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Hmm …
… This from last month: Flu Season That's Sickened 26 Million May Be at Its Peak | Health News | US News.
By way of comparison:
Ebola -— 11,300 deaths
SARS — 774 deaths
H1N1 Flu — more than 284,000 deaths
Covid-19 deaths worldwide — 8,246
Flu deaths this flu season in U.S. between 22,000 and 53,000
Annual death rate worldwide from flu 646,000
By way of comparison:
Ebola -— 11,300 deaths
SARS — 774 deaths
H1N1 Flu — more than 284,000 deaths
Covid-19 deaths worldwide — 8,246
Flu deaths this flu season in U.S. between 22,000 and 53,000
Annual death rate worldwide from flu 646,000
Something to think on …
Utopias now appear much more realizable than one used to think. We are now faced with a different new worry: How to prevent their realization.
— Nikolai Berdyaev, born on this date in 1874
Tuesday, March 17, 2020
Hmm …
… Diamond Princess Mysteries | Watts Up With That?
In addition to the low rate of disease incidence (83% didn’t get it), the curious part of Figure 2 for me is that there’s not a whole lot of difference between young and old passengers in terms of how many didn’t get coronavirus. For example, sixty to sixty-nine-year-old passengers stayed healthier than teenagers. And three-quarters of the oldest group, those over eighty, didn’t get the virus. Go figure. Buncha virus resistant old geezers, I guess …
Blogging note …
I won't be blogging again until this afternoon, when I get back from shopping in town.
Something to think on …
The past is our ultimate privacy; we pile it up, year by year, decade by decade, it stows itself away, with its perverse random recall system.
—Penelope Lively, born on this date in 1933
Monday, March 16, 2020
While we are all asked to be shut-ins …
… Beyond Eastrod : Poetry and quarantine on the home front.
Me? I'll be out and about as usual. Tomorrow, bright and early, I'll be at the Reading Terminal Market. Should be plenty of chances for infection there. And I'm 78. Of course, I've also been told by the head of family medicine at a university hospital who checked my records that I'm in really good health, and not just for someone my age. But, as Jim Morrison once reminded us, nobody gets out of here alive. But given what the state of the world is likely to be after this establishment power grab, there may not be much left to live for.
I fear he is right on both counts
… Bruce Charlton's Notions: Don't blame the crows! It's Not About the birdemic!
… Church leaders tell Western Christians - "You're on your own!"
Though we are not quite on our own. There is God.
… Church leaders tell Western Christians - "You're on your own!"
Though we are not quite on our own. There is God.
The uses of poetry …
… In a time of crisis, poetry can help focus our fears and transform ‘noise into music’ - The Washington Post. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Still, I would guess that most of us turn to far more sentimental verse when confronting adversity or seeking comfort. Kipling is much derided, but his oft-quoted poem “If” has inspired generations with its tribute to character and endurance, to the will to “watch the things you gave your life to broken” and then to build them up again “with wornout tools.”Very little poetry of a political nature has any appeal for me. Kenneth Patchen can pull it off, probably because his usually has a humorous edge). Politics is so unpoetic.
Mutability …
… First Known When Lost: Ephemeral.
Marcus Aurelius has wise words for us: "How ridiculous, and like a stranger is he, who is surprised at any thing which happens in life!" (Marcus Aurelius (translated by Francis Hutcheson and James Moor), Meditations, Book XII, Section 13.) Spring is here. But not for long. Anything is possible.
The way things are …
… Perilous Directions by Gregory Wolfe | Articles | First Things. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
… Original Prin is concerned with the phenomenon raised by a line from G. K. Chesterton, often misquoted as follows: “When a man stops believing in God he doesn’t then believe in nothing, he believes anything.” What Chesterton actually wrote is even more provocative. In one of the Father Brown stories, the priest-sleuth notes that one dire result of unbelief is not the rise of reason but the proliferation of superstition: “It’s drowning all your old rationalism and scepticism, it’s coming in like a sea; and the name of it is superstition. . . . It’s the first effect of not believing in God that you lose your common sense and can’t see things as they are.”
Something to think on …
The single most exciting thing you encounter in government is competence, because it's so rare.
— Daniel Patrick Moynihan, born on this date in 1927
Sunday, March 15, 2020
Well, you know I agree …
… Whether the Wuhan Virus Is a ‘Crisis’ or a Crisis.
Precautions are one thing, a good thing. Panic is another thing, and a bad one. By all means, wash your hands, be careful when coughing or sneezing, take reasonable precautions. But what we are witnessing now is an access of irrational hysteria whose end is less safety than sanctimoniousness.
Very nice …
… Poem of the week: The Idler by Alice Dunbar Nelson | Books | The Guardian. (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
I did not know of Alice Dunbar Nelson, but I will be looking into her work now.
Much in what he says …
… Message to the Young: Beware the Groove | The American Spectator. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Hugh Hefner started publishing installments of his Playboy Philosophy while I was still in college. That was a Jesuit college. But that didn’t the editor of the college newspaper (yours truly) and a classmate (the vice president of student council) from holding a public sent minar about it. That it proved influential can hardly be denied. Whether it rubbed elbows with truth is another question altogether. I had quite a few courses in real philosophy.
As I have wondered …
… Compared to what? by Heather Mac Donald | The New Criterion. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Rather than indiscriminately shutting down public events and travel, we should target prevention where it is most needed: in nursing homes and hospitals.
Just wondering …
According to Statista.com, there have been 4,592 deaths from Covid-19 worldwide as of March 12.
According to the CDC, between Oct. 1, 2019 and February 29, 2020, between 22,000 and 53,000 died of the flu in this country.
According to Medicine.Net the flu kills between 291,000 and 646,000 annually worldwide.
These numbers do not seem to me to warrant the scare headlines and extreme measures being taken regarding Covid-19.
Am I missing something? If so, what?
I am old enough to remember when public swimming pools were shut during the years before the polio vaccine came along.
According to the CDC, between Oct. 1, 2019 and February 29, 2020, between 22,000 and 53,000 died of the flu in this country.
According to Medicine.Net the flu kills between 291,000 and 646,000 annually worldwide.
These numbers do not seem to me to warrant the scare headlines and extreme measures being taken regarding Covid-19.
Am I missing something? If so, what?
I am old enough to remember when public swimming pools were shut during the years before the polio vaccine came along.
Something to think on …
Existence in itself, taken at its least miraculous, is a miracle.
— Rebecca West, who died on this date in 1983
Saturday, March 14, 2020
A love story …
… Learning Latin by Joseph Epstein | Articles | First Things. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
The love of Latin in my case is in good part love for the precision of the language. One cannot guess at the meanings of Latin words, but must know their meanings by their inflections, tenses, genders. The virtue of Latin being a dead language is that the meanings of its words do not change in the way that words in contemporary languages do. No Roman, after all, ever said that at the end of the day he was weaponizing multiple existential threats to ensure a level playing field.I had three years of Latin high school, and one in college (or was it two?). I passed the tests, but never mastered the language. Lately I have been using Duolingo to get reacquainted with it.
Today’s media …
… Inky's Fired 'Token Conservative' Says Paper Was Clueless | Big Trial | Philadelphia Trial Blog.
(Hat tip, Paul Davis.)
(Hat tip, Paul Davis.)
Of course, they will continue to inflict on their readers the moronic rantings of Will Bunch, who, if he ever has another idea besides the two or three currently lodged in what passes for his mind, will probably reach for an Excedrin,
Something to think on …
Don't listen to the person who has the answers; listen to the person who has the questions.
— Albert Einstein, born on this date in 1879
On the other hand …
… this young bears watching — and listening to: A Girl Makes Music Without Irony or Ugliness - WSJ. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
RIP …
… Charles Wuorinen, modernist composer without compromise, dies at 81. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
I don’t remember thinking much of his music, but I’ll give it another listen.
Friday, March 13, 2020
Richard Hughes
In general, I don't tend to gravitate to novels about children: there's something about those books which feels out of reach or distant. This was the case, again, with A High Wind in Jamaica, Richard Hughes's curious novel about a group of children captured -- and later released -- by pirates off the coast of Cuba.
This really is an odd novel: there's brutality and crime, but at the same time, there's tenderness and naivety. I suspect that was Hughes's goal: to contrast youth with age, innocence with corruption. For me, these contrasts did not necessarily warrant pirates or rum. In fact, some of this novel -- which has been celebrated since its publication in 1929 -- seemed almost nonsensical: these captive children would never have survived as they did if it weren't for their, well, credulity.
And again, maybe this was Hughes's point: that innocence is a surprisingly powerful force, and that children can accommodate almost any circumstance. I acknowledge this argument, and concede there are moments in the novel which effectively highlight that unexpected power. But in the end, this seemed more an idea than the basis for an extended work of fiction. For me, the divergence between youth and age was too jarring to be believable: and the result were interactions between toddlers and pirates which didn't fully fit.
And the winners are …
… The National Book Critics Circle Award – National Book Critics Circle. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
In brief …
… Where Have All the Great Aphorists Gone? | The American Conservative. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Auden and Kronenberger close their foreword by noting that their field of selection was restricted to “writers belonging to what, for lack of a better term, is called Western civilization.” Doubtless today some half-educated scold would wag a condescending finger at Auden for that last phrase, “Western civilization,” albeit with little sense of what it means. The concept, and even the words, are quickly coming under the ban.But Auden, who knew more and understood better than our contemporary doyens of labored and puerile outrage, has, along with his co-author, a word in season on this topic, too. We might note the qualification already given: “for lack of a better term.” Yes, the term is imprecise. Yes, it is open to misunderstanding. No, we do not have a better one.
Worth noting …
… Bruce Charlton's Notions: Birdemic bleg.
Bruce Charlton is a physician and has been a professor of medicine.
I would note that, according to the CDC, between October 1, 2019 and February 29, 2020, there have been between 22,000 – 55,000 flu deaths in this country. Please take note of the range. Hardly what I would call precise. When Will Rogers said that "All I know is what I read in the newspapers," he was joking. Now, though, many people seem to have an evangelical faith in what the media tells them. To its credit, CNBC has reported that there are now two strains of COVID-19, the newer one being less aggressive than the first, whose frequency has decreased since January. But I haven't seen much made of this.
Anyway, color me skeptical (which is what journalists are supposed to be, though many of today's seem selectively credulous to me).
For your listening pleasure …
… Bruce Charlton's Notions: Vashti Bunyan sings.
She escaped me too at the time. Lovely voice. And lovely.
She escaped me too at the time. Lovely voice. And lovely.
Something to think on …
Happiness comes, I know, from some spring within a man — from some curious adjustment to life.
— Hugh Walpole, born on this date in 1884
Thursday, March 12, 2020
My sentiments exactly …
… Bruce Charlton's Notions: How dangerous are ravens? (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
… Corvid-19. (Also from Dave.)
We are So Extremely Far Away - a thousand fold? - from anything significant in terms of global deaths over this many weeks, that the international health crisis is revealed as fake. However, a fake crisis is better - from an Establishment perspective - than a real one; as it can be controlled. Indeed, from the mass media attitude; the decision to make the most of Corvid-19 seems only to have been made in the past couple of weeks, when it became clear that it was not a major global danger.
… Corvid-19. (Also from Dave.)
Appreciation …
… A look back at Sidney Lumet's great cop films - Washington Times.
The cop film quartet covered corrupt cops in New York City, and although I felt the films gave the unfair impression that all New York cops were corrupt, I enjoyed the gritty and otherwise realistic films, two of which — “Serpico” and “Prince of the City” — were based on true stories.
Hmm …
… Keep It Simple by Edward Feser | Articles | First Things. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Having spent a couple of years studying scholastic philosophy, which is grounded in Aquinas’s Summa, I found myself wondering while reading this how anyone who considers himself a theist would think as Craig does, because I am of course trained to think of God in terms of his simplicity. Mathematics is true because it reflects the mind of God, as is anything else that is true.
Something to think on …
The most ingenious men are now agreed, that [universities] are only nurseries of prejudice, corruption, barbarism, and pedantry.
— George Berkeley, born on this date in 1685
Blogging note …
I have to head into Center City early today, but should be back by early afternoon, when I will catch up with blogging.
FYI …
… 5 Facts About James McNeill Whistler, Who Believed in "Art for Art's Sake". (Hat tip, Rus Bowden.)
Only the first was new to me, but they’re all interesting.
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